MONTEVIDEO FROM THE SEA.
They left the bay of Rio Janeiro as they had entered it, passing near the base of the Sugar-Loaf, and keeping their eyes fixed on its lofty peak until it dwindled to a mere point on the horizon. Southward and a little to the westward they took their course, and six days after leaving Rio were in front of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
VIEW IN THE CAPITAL OF URUGUAY.
They found it a clean and well-built city, consisting largely of flat-roofed houses a single story in height, though there were many modern structures of two or three stories. It is on a point of land extending into a bay which affords shelter from all winds except the southwest; the harbor is well provided with docks and other conveniences for shipping purposes, and the city has half a dozen street railways, is lighted with gas, and has several steam railways into the interior of Uruguay. The business of the place is principally in the exportation of hides, wool, horse-hair, and other products of Uruguay and the surrounding country, and the importation of machinery, lumber, and numerous articles which may be classified as "assorted goods." Frank investigated the statistics, and found that Montevideo has a population of more than one hundred thousand, while Uruguay, of which it is the capital, has half a million inhabitants, and an area of seventy thousand square miles. The party had about five hours on shore at Montevideo, and then returned to the steamer to cross the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Ayres, one hundred and thirty miles distant. From the anchorage, about six miles from the city, they were taken ashore in a steam tender which came puffing out to meet them.
They landed with all their baggage, and after a delay in port of some twenty hours the steamer proceeded to the Strait of Magellan and the Pacific Ocean. In a subsequent chapter we will know more about her course. Most of the foreign steamers going southward from Montevideo do not visit Buenos Ayres, but go direct to the strait without stopping.
Twice as large as Montevideo, and with many evidences of wealth and prosperity, Buenos Ayres impressed our young friends as second only to Rio Janeiro among the cities of the South American continent, as far as they had seen them. Its streets are parallel to each other; it contains many fine buildings, both public and private; has ten daily newspapers in Spanish, French, English, German, and Italian, besides several weekly or monthly publications; can boast of banks, theatres, hospitals, churches, convents, public libraries, museums, and the like; has several good hotels; and is, in fact, a comfortable place to be in. So thought our friends as they settled in their hotel and afterwards took a stroll through one of the principal streets.